Former minister denies interference with contract process.

OTTAWA – Former federal public works minister Michael Fortier said
Tuesday he never interfered or was asked to intervene in the awarding of a
public contract while in government.

Fortier made the comments at a parliamentary committee that is investigating
whether links exist between government contracts and political fundraisers.

The former Conservative senator, who is now a banking executive, was in
charge of the Public Works Department when it awarded a multimillion-dollar
contract to LM Sauve, a Quebec construction firm, to renovate Parliament’s West
Block building.

The company later lost the contract before going bankrupt, but not before
its head, Paul Sauve, organized a fundraising event in January 2009 in a
Montreal restaurant for a Conservative riding association in the city with the
new public works minister Christian Paradis in attendance.

Several other entrepreneurs who had government contracts or would later do
business with the Public Works Department also attended the event, including
Joseph Broccolini whose construction company recently won tenders for building
LEED gold office towers for the government in Gatineau, Que.

Broccolini, who also appeared before the parliamentary committee, said he
was invited by the restaurant owner who said the event offered an opportunity
to discuss issues with Paradis. But he told the MPs that this was the first
political fundraiser he had attended and that it would be the last.

Opposition MPs questioned whether it was appropriate for Conservatives to
promote the event by offering access to the minister and were skeptical about
Fortier’s remarks that he did not know about problems with the government
contracts.

For his part, Fortier said the department regularly deals with thousands of
contracts and that a minister would not be expected to be briefed on every
single one.